{"id":292,"date":"2012-08-07T11:46:38","date_gmt":"2012-08-07T18:46:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.circuitspecialists.com\/?p=292"},"modified":"2024-01-04T22:09:02","modified_gmt":"2024-01-05T05:09:02","slug":"using-a-digital-multimeter-to-locate-a-buried-cable-fault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/blog\/using-a-digital-multimeter-to-locate-a-buried-cable-fault\/","title":{"rendered":"Using a Digital Multimeter to Locate a Buried Cable Fault"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A digital multimeter with capacitance testing feature can be used to locate\u00a0the approximate position of a broken coaxial cable. This method exploits the\u00a0capacitance per foot properties of <a title=\"coaxial cable\" href=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/coaxial-cable-tester.html\">coaxial cable<\/a>. Most modern digital multimeters\u00a0have a capacitance testing feature available on the meter. If the manufacturer\u00a0of the coax cable is known, the data sheet<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-294\" title=\"CSI2010-4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/CSI2010-4.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><\/p>\n<p>specifications of the cable should\u00a0be obtained. The specifications will contain the capacitance per foot value of\u00a0the cable. Most coax cable of a particular type (ie. RG58, RG59, RG6 etc.) have\u00a0very similar capacitance characteristics so this value may be estimated if the\u00a0manufacturers data is not available. Once the approximate capacitance per foot\u00a0value is known, the coax under test is connected to the multimeter. This can be\u00a0done by stripping the end of the coax or by fabricating a short \u201cpigtail\u201d lead that\u00a0will allow the existing coax connector to be connected to the meter. Now read\u00a0the capacitance value displayed on the multimeter and calculate the distance to\u00a0the open circuit using the capacitance per foot value from the spec sheet. I tried\u00a0out this technique on a random length of RG 6U cable that was laying around\u00a0the shop. I measured a capacitance value of 413 pf using the <a title=\"low cost digital multimeter\" href=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/low-cost-multimeter.html\">Circuit Specialists\u00a0CSI2010 low cost multimeter<\/a>. Using the value of 17 pf per foot from the data\u00a0sheet, I calculated the length of the cable at 24.3 feet (24 feet 3.6 inches). A\u00a0physical measurement of the cable piece yielded a length of 24 Feet 5 inches. So\u00a0we see that the result was within a couple of inches of the actual length.<\/p>\n<p>This easy to use technique yielded excellent results even using a low cost <a title=\"digital multimeter\" href=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/digital-multimeters\">digital multimeter<\/a> to perform the measurement. Although this method does not replace\u00a0a high cost cable testing unit using TDR measurement techniques, it does provide\u00a0a simple, reliable, low cost method for finding a broken cable in an existing\u00a0installation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/92001.pdf\">Click here to view the product data sheet<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A digital multimeter with capacitance testing feature can be used to locate\u00a0the approximate position of a broken coaxial cable. This<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-multimeters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Using a Digital Multimeter to Locate a Buried Cable Fault | Simply Smarter Circuitry Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.circuitspecialists.com\/blog\/using-a-digital-multimeter-to-locate-a-buried-cable-fault\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Using a Digital Multimeter to Locate a Buried Cable Fault | Simply Smarter Circuitry Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A digital multimeter with capacitance testing feature can be used to locate\u00a0the approximate position of a broken coaxial cable. 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